World Coal Association Calls For Backing Of Carbon Capture And Storage

The publication of the Global Status of CCS: 2016 report calling on world leaders to improve support for CCS projects in order to meet the Paris Agreement targets has been welcomed by the World Coal Association (WCA)

The report, published by the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI), gives an overview of current international climate discussions, CCS projects, policy and market developments as well as key issues in CCS technologies.

Benjamin Sporton, WCA CEO says: “This report is a reminder that it’s not one or the other; all low emission technologies have a role to play in climate action.

It’s essential that we recognise that accelerated carbon capture and storage (CCS) development and deployment is critical to meeting the Paris Agreement climate goals. CCS is safe, reliable, cost-effective, and efficient – reducing emissions from coal power production by up to 90%.

There needs to be policy parity. This means CCS must receive an equal level of attention and support as low-carbon technologies.

“While there have been important steps in advancing CCS since 2005, the support and attention CCS has received has not yet translated into broad policy support at global and national levels. There needs to be policy parity. This means CCS must receive an equal level of attention and support as low-carbon technologies.

More investment in CCS today will ensure that more countries can meet their growing energy demands and simultaneously reduce global emissions”

Key points:

The Paris Agreement lays a foundation on which the world can build on its climate actions. It is clear that that to limit temperatures to ‘well below’ 2°C, let alone 1.5°C all low emissions technologies including CCS need to be deployed.

Carbon capture, and storage (CCS) is essential to global efforts to reduce CO2 emissions – it can reduce emissions from coal by 90%.

38 large-scale CCS projects have been identified around the world, of which 21 are due to be operational by the end of 2017. Together these 21 projects will be able to capture about 40 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.

The amount invested in other clean energy technologies has been 120 times greater than that for CCS. Worldwide, around US$2.5 trillion has been invested in clean energy technologies in the last 10 years, of which US$1.8 trillion has been on wind and solar technologies. In comparison, investment in CCS during the same period has been around US$20 billion.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that to meet the Paris Agreement goals, we need to capture and store almost 4,000Mt of carbon per annum by 2040. And to meet this expectation, we need to invest heavily in CCS technology.